Lately I've been thinking about you. Yes, that's right. YOU. All of you cloth-diapering moms who who have "liked" Thirsties on
Facebook and have often commented on my blogs. Ok, ok, I know I am not being PC and I really should be asking "Are you are crunchy cloth-diapering parent?" I don't want to leave dads out, but since I am pretty sure most of you are indeed moms, I'll take the risk. Now, when I ask if you are a crunchy mom, I don't mean "Do you wear long skirts, layered-tanks tops, have unshaven legs and wear Birkenstocks?" (But if you do, that's cool!) What I am really wondering is this: Are cloth-diapering families more likely to recycle, to garden, to eat organic and local, to walk or ride bikes instead of driving? Are they more likely to compost and garden, to make home-made baby food, to co-sleep, to breastfeed, to wear their babies? Or are cloth-diapering moms just as diverse as disposable-diapering families? So what I'd like is this--I'd love to hear how you compare to the stereo-typical Crunchy Cloth-Diapering Mom and if you are the polar opposite, I want to hear that too! There is no judgement here--we all have parent and diapering in common--but it's fun to hear our differences once in a while too. I'll go first.
- Well, first of all, I do shave my legs--though many a time, I've gotten out of the shower and discovered that I shaved the same leg twice because I was interrupted by a child. No one ever interrupts my husband while he is shaving. Hmmmmm.....strange.
- I don't own Birkenstocks but I used to in college...now I wear flip flops all summer and my Dansko clogs all winter (I think those are kind of crunchy).
- I rarely wear make-up because I never go anywhere very exciting and I certainly don't have an extra five minutes in the morning to put any on--but honestly, I probably should. These days I am lucky if I leave the house with a bra on.
- I am an avid recycler. I cringe when I see plastic or glass in the trash. It weighs too heavily on my conscience. In fact, we were recently out of state and went to a game a huge sports arena. I was horrified by the fact that every single bottle, can and cup was thrown in the trash. Boulder is big on recycling and it's become a bit of an obsession with me.
- We do have a small garden, we do NOT compost (I am not crunchy enough to tolerate the sugar ants it attracted even though I had in a sealed container!).
- I have co-slept with all three of my children for varying amounts of time. Cooper is finally in his own room which is wonderful because I couldn't stand the crooked neck from nursing all night any longer!
- My husband does ride his bike to work when he can, but I have to admit, I am all about the car these days. I just can't get anywhere with all three any other way.
- I do NOT make my own baby food. Again, it's the time thing--or at least that's my excuse--but I have nursed all three for a minimum of 16 months.
- We eat organic and local when we can--but it is pricey and I have to take that into account.
I don’t consider myself crunchy, more so because I just hate the term rather than the practices. We cloth diaper, and have since nearly day one. This is my first. I have also exclusively breastfed until she was 5 and a half months, and I do make her baby food. She’s almost 7 months now, and I’m not sure how long I’ll continue to breastfeed; I don’t have an end date in mind. I don’t garden; I have a brown thumb. I also don’t do much local/organic shopping, though I would like to. We partially co-sleep. My daughter starts in her crib, sometimes stays all night, sometimes ends up in bed with us when I’m feeling too lazy to stay up to nurse her and put her back in her own bed. We recycle just about every scrap of paper we don’t need, and most plastics, cans, and glass. I don’t wear a lot of make-up, but what I do wear I consider essential! And I don’t wear birkenstocks, or anything similar. I love my skinny jeans, shorts, flip flops, flats, and on-trend tops.
I don’t consider my family crunchy, just practical. We live in a rural area where you’d have to drive over 60 miles round trip after 8pm if you needed to buy last minute disposable diapers. I am breast feeding, we do garden a lot, have a compost pile, hike, eat locally when ever possible, kayak, ski and attempt to golf. I do wear makeup when we go out, but a lot less than I used to! We love the nature outdoor thing AND Nordstoms, not that there is one near us!
I consider myself to be crunchy, tree-hugging, organic, and natural. Organic gardening, composting, yoga, hiking, picnics, walking, bicycling, recycling, up-cycling, free-cycling, buying used, made most of my own baby food, nursed 3 babies, wore them, co-slept when nursing. I pay about 1/3 to 1/2 more for organic food and products, but it is worth it if I can for our health and the planet. Just hauled out two bags of cans and plastic that someone left in their camping spot from our picnic yesterday. Can’t stand to see trash in nature. I think that not shaving and no makeup has to do more with a personality, not crunchy. I use organic makeup when I go somewhere special. I shave. I am clean. I like to look nice, but natural!
I think I am semi-crunchy. I cloth diaper, but started when my LO was 4 months old. I also wear him a lot, either in a sling or Ergo. My son is exclusively breastfed. We started him with food at 8 months and we make all of our own baby food and try to buy local and organic depending on the price. We recycle and garden. We drive most places, but only have 1 car for our family. I guess I never thought of some of these things as being crunchy, they just seem like the right thing to do for our son, life style, and environment.
I think i am fairly crunchy for being a working mom. I had my first child 7 months ago. Before he arrived we gardened,composted and recycled. I initially did part-time cloth diapering with him because i went back to work full time and didn’t have enough cd’s to make it work—but then i added to my stock and the daycare ladies were happy to use them, too, so we cloth diaper full time! I did buy some baby food prior to his birth (mostly organic varieties) but now do my best to make my own. I breastfeed him and plan to continue as long as he wants (within reason i think). Since his birth, i have been more inspired to buy organic foods, to look at the chemicals in all of the products we use and get back to basics with as much as possible. I want to do my best to give my son a healthy environment to grow up in because there is so much toxic stuff in our world these days. But in wanting to keep him healthy it has probably helped me get my dh and I on the path to a more healthy lifestyle as well.
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